> But actual talent, like human height or average running speed, is probably normally distributed. Talent would be normally distributed if it was e.g. the sum

> But actual talent, like human height or average running speed, is probably normally distributed. Talent would be normally distributed if it was e.g. the sum of your partial talents, as a result of Central limit. There are different kinds of talent though, and gifted people are talented in one thing, but may even suck badly in others. If there are 5 talents, a person barely above average, with 0.6 in everything has total talent 3 and Mozart who has 1.0 only in music has total talent 1. That's not how talent works though: extremely gifted people are almost unstoppable. It would take extremely adverse circumstances for Mozart of Maria Callas or Michelangelo to not be successful. So, i don't think Talent works at all like a bell curve. It's futile to make parallels with IQ (which IS a sum of variable representing partial skills). That's why i think those studies find those power laws (and frankly, there are not many ways to measure talent directly). Also: Note that they didn't measure the wealth of the artist, but the price of their works since the time they lived , as a long-term testament to their talent.